LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A 37-year-old woman is accused of sparking a fire that fatally injured another woman at an east Las Vegas mobile home park on Wednesday.
Police: Woman dies from burn injuries after argument, fire at east Las Vegas mobile home
Tiffany Willis was arrested after being treated for smoke inhalation from the fire, according to an arrest report obtained by 13 Action News.
Lt. Ray Spencer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's homicide section described the details detectives were provided in the aftermath of the fire as "convoluted," but said police believe it was the result of an argument about infidelity.
First responders were called to the mobile home in the area of 1322 S. Mojave Road just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, and witnessed several people outside engaged in a fist fight. A woman with significant burns to her entire body was also running in the street outside the home, Spencer said.
According to the arrest report, Willis lived at the home with her boyfriend, Arnold Copeland. The victim — identified as Jane Doe in the report — and Copeland's friend Keshaun Wynton would often come around the home and had been sleeping there, police were told.
On Wednesday, police learned Willis' boyfriend found out she had been unfaithful to him with his friend Wynton, and broke up with her.
Willis became "extremely upset" and walked to what police described as a makeshift patio area, where Wynton and the victim were laying on a foam mattress stacked atop wooden pallets. Wynton told police she said, "I'm gonna set it on fire," and he heard her ask someone for a lighter, the report states.
She walked back and knelt over the mattress, which Wynton said immediately became engulfed in flames, according to the report.
The fight poured out into the street, where Wynton said he saw Willis running away, and Copeland allegedly punched a neighbor who tried to stop her. The victim ran out of the house, engulfed in flames which Copeland said he tried to stifle with a jacket and hose.
The victim suffered third-degree burns to the majority of her body, and doctors at University Medical Center's trauma center told police she might not survive the injuries. At 10 p.m. Wednesday, she was pronounced dead, the report states.
A woman who suffered burns to approximately 100% of her body in yesterday's mobile home fire in east Las Vegas has died. A 37-year-old woman was arrested for her murder. https://t.co/zKPFoNTGpY
— KTNV 13 Action News (@KTNV) January 27, 2022
In an interview with detectives, Willis "started crying and said she was not trying to hurt anyone, but she wanted to scare Wynton because of their on and off again relationship issues," according to the report.
A lighter was recovered from a dumpster near the home and sent for crime lab analysis, the report states.
Willis was booked into Clark County Detention Center and held on charges of open murder, the attempted murder of Wynton, and two counts of first-degre arson. Bond was set at $40,000, according to jail records.
